In a recent security report on Android, Norton Mobile Security revealed that the Facebook application for Android is reportedly leaking the device phone number.
According to the report, “the first time you launch the Facebook application, even before logging in, your phone number will be sent over the Internet to Facebook servers. You do not need to provide your phone number, log in, initiate a specific action, or even need a Facebook account for this to happen.”
It was also reported that, hundreds of millions of devices have installed the Facebook application and a significant portion of those devices are likely affected.
According to the post:
We reached out to Facebook who investigated the issue and will provide a fix in their next Facebook for Android release. They stated they did not use or process the phone numbers and have deleted them from their servers
Unfortunately, the Facebook application is not the only application leaking private data or even the worst. We will continue to post information about risky applications to this blog in the upcoming weeks.
